MOSELY COMMISSIONS, two delega tions known as the INDUSTRIAL and the EDUCA TIONAL, which visited the United States in 1902 and 1903 to study conditions and methods in their respective branches, for comparison with those of Great Britain.
The Mosely Industrial Commission made a tour of the United States from November 1902 to January 1903, to investigate manufacturing, industrial and commercial lines, which in inter national competition had seriously affected the commerce and free trade policy of Great Britain. It was financed by Mr. Alfred Mosely (b. Bris tol, England, 1855), a diamond merchant whose relations with American mining and other engi neers in South Africa had developed the desire to discover the sources of their success, the comparative causes of Great Britain's industrial decline, and to evolve a plan whereby Ameri can methods could be introduced into the United Kingdom for the rehabilitation of its economic and industrial status. A suggestion to invite British trade-unions to select a representative from each to form a commission to study American industries and the condition of the workmen was acted upon, most of the unions electing as representative their general secre tary. Twenty-three formed the commission and were given a free trip to the States, with ex penses paid for nearly three months. Each man was pledged to study conditions carefully and to answer fully on his return a series of tabu lated questions.
Mr. Mosely and the delegates made a circu lar tour in which they were afforded every op portunity to inspect some of the largest manu factories in the United States. They visited Niagara, Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, Dayton, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and New York, as one party, while individual members also took trips to other points. The chief results of their ob servations were published in the 'Reports of the Most.ly Industrial Commission' (London, April 1903).
Some of the conclusions arrived at were: The American workman for two and one-half days' work receives renumeration equal to that of the British for a week; the American is more temperate than the British; he lives longer; is more thrifty, and after a few years frequently retires with his savings to an easier occupation, usually farming or market-gardening. Labor saving machines were more in evidence in America than in the United Kingdom, but, there was a considerable difference of opinion among the various delegates as to what could be learned from America in their respective trades, for instance, the shipbuilding' and brick laying in England were considered superior to those of America. To the question uAre there
greater opportunities for the workingman to rise in America than in ("Yes?' came as a unanimous answer. The average workman was considered as good in one country as the other, the difference was to be found in conditions. In Great Britain generations of workers toil in a confined area, and have be come hidebound by inherited labor traditions; increased production to them does not mean in creased wages — hence a lack of incentive. In the United States, the stimulating climate and abundance of undeveloped resources tend to a constant striving for direct results through the simplest means, whence the wonderful devel opment of machinery, manufacturing equipment, output, increased wages, general prosperity and of the American workmen, together with a unity of feeling between employers and employees along the lines of increased produc tion, which is not to be found in England. The organization of capital and labor in the United States produced agreat impression on the del egates, and the advantages of the Civic Fed eration to bring together these two great and active factors in production on all disputed questions, and at the initial stages to avert strikes by arbitration, were fully recognized as those of a model organization worthy of imme diate adoption. The freedom accorded to re ligious belief and the excellent public school education of the States elicited the warmest praise from the commission, the advantage given to all the American youth being fully apparent.
The success of the Industrial Commission led to the organization of the Mosely Educa tional Commission to the United States, Octo ber-December 1903, in which 26 prominent British educators took part at the invitation of Mr. Mosely to investigate: 1. The development of individuality in the primary schools.
2. The social and intellectual effects of the wide distribution of secondary education.
3. The effect of specific instruction given (a) in business methods; (b) in applied science.
4. The present state of opinion as to the value of professional and technical instruction of university rank, designed with special refer ence to the tasks of business life.
As in the work of the Industrial Commis sion the conclusive deductions drawn were wholly in favor of the system of education in the United States which was described•as prac tical, enlarged, enlightened, up-to-date and scientific. Consult Mosely, 'Reports of the Mosely Educational Commion to the United States of America, October-November 1903' (London 1904).